SDCC Trailer Park (Who, Trek, DC, Godzilla)

I don't do a lot of this, but this year's San Diego Comic-Con saw the premiere of a ton of long-awaited and frankly exciting trailers. So I picked the ones I was actually excited about, and I'm gonna react. If I didn't like them, they're not on here. Barr maybe one (that's a pun for long-time readers, by the way).

Doctor Who - We've been waiting a loooonnnnng time, it feels, for even a nugget of information from Chibnall's Doc13 team, and nuggets is in fact all we got. He's playing it very close to the vest. A few days before SDCC, we got a teaser completely dissimilar to the trailer, so let's start there:


I love Jodie's smile so damn much! Is this meant to be an abstraction, like Doc9 running from a fireball back in 2005? Or are they actual shots from the show? If so, it looks like time's broken again, and Jodie's Doctor may or may not have access to her TARDIS, but could go looking for it through these temporal anomalies, along with a trio of companions who feel the turn of the universe like her (and get unlimited pizza). Good diversity in the cast, but who are they? Let's look to the trailer for more clues:


Nice speech, and the mention of new times and worlds does tend to dispel the (to some) worrying notion that she might be trapped on Earth in the now, à la UNIT Era. No TARDIS though. It also seems like all three ARE companions; one of the things that wasn't clear to me from previous announcements was if this was a team or a CAST. In the latter case, the older character, for example, might have been a recurring antagonist, or any of them might have been a supporting cast member, like Sgt. Benton or Danny Pink. Not a whole lot to go one, mind you. Quarries and such, but at least one shot shows an alien planet with multiple suns. No enemy is shown (I'm hoping for all new threats, frankly, though I'm still waiting for a Yeti redesign), but even without any information on the plots, yes, I agree with the Doctor, this is gonna be fun. BONUS: The new sonic screwdriver, via the toy line.

Where there's a screwdriver, there's a TARDIS, right? That's as maybe. It looks organic, but also kind of kit-bashed on the fly (raw crystal at the tip, soldered metal...). Still not sure the blue box is accessible before a number of episodes have passed.

Star Trek Discovery has a Season 2 trailer out, let's look at it:


Well, they're certainly pushing the humor in this one, especially once the music cue starts playing. That last scene could be right out of The Orville. But the first season was so grim at times, I'm not sure I mind it. This is more about exploration than warfare, though there seems to be some exciting action moments regardless, and I'm all for it. What is distinctly absent is Jason Isaacs, who many tapped as the next captain of the Discovery, i.e. Lorca Prime. Instead, surprise surprise, Christopher Pike takes command, at least in the short term, because only the Discovery's spore drive can (presumably) jump around to space-time anomalies in his Search for Spock (that Vulcan keeps getting himself lost, doesn't he?). Anson Mount seems to be channeling the Reboot's Bruce Greenwood more than the original pilot's Jeffrey Hunter, but I guess that's a legitimate approach for modern viewers. I believe Greenwood's catch phrase was "Punch it", but I don't remember Hunter having one. Anyway, I'm up for leaving the war behind, and we'll see if the series has jettisoned too much of itself (leaving some plot threads dangling) or just enough.

Next up, a trio of superhero trailers. There were more, but either I don't care, or I didn't want to spoil myself by looking ahead on a TV series I'm behind on. First, Shazam!


Putting horror director David F. Sandberg on this seems to have been a big fake-out. It's not gonna be grimdark New52 Shazam, but rather a superhero comedy, and I'm up for it. The fakey, padded superhero look works because it's Zachary Levi, kind of doing Young Chuck, and I'm deeply interested in how this segment of the DC Cinematic Universe will work, tonally. I mean, are they still doing a Black Adam stand-alone? And if it's dark as per the comics, how will that work when these guys eventually meet? This movie has Mark Strong as a more physically impressive Dr. Sivana, but Adam probably won't be in it more than an end credit sequence, if at all. The one worry is that Cap and Billy don't feel like the same person. Cap is a big kid, but Billy is jaded and streetwise. Maybe we're just seeing moments of elation, but it's like he's playing an aged-up Freddy instead. But the trailer sold it, I'm in. In fact, between this and our next trailer, the DC movies seem to have turned a corner, into FUN.


Black Manta is gorgeous! Gonna save the ink and send you to a special Fire and Water Podcast where Xum Yukinori and myself guested on Shagg and Rob's show to talk about this trailer about 15 minutes after it dropped. FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR IN-DEPTH (nailed it) DISCUSSION!

I debated putting the Titans TV show trailer in here, but this is a family blog. Instead, how to do a "dark" Titans show, via Young Justice. They pulled a "5 years later" between seasons 1 and 2, but ironically, made us wait an actual 5 years for season 3. For those who are nevertheless not caught up, I've set the video to start at the new material, cuz there's almost 3 minutes of spoilery recap!


Markov--- WTF?! OUTSIDERS?!! DAMN IT!!! You know I hate those guys! Especially Geo-Force who is front and center! And they better not pull another "Traitor Terra" story either. It's been done to death! Buttttt, dialing it down, I have to admit YJ has been as good at reinvention as the old Justice League/JLU cartoon was, so I expect Terra to have a different fate, for once, and Geo-Force might even be palatable. We glimpse Black Lightning (a mentor figure?), Metamorpho (yes!) and Katana, while some of the art released for the season includes a cool-looking riff on Halo. I don't know who that four-armed "tick" guy is supposed to be, but he's got a good look. As for the season arc, it's built on the bones of the previous season's "Invasion", the metagene serving as impetus for villains to traffic in potential superhumans. That's worthy. And though it feels like some favorites are going to fall by the wayside to make room for all these new characters, that's what I thought of Season 2, and they totally managed to serve the long-serving members as well, so hopefully, nothing to worry about.

Finally, Godzilla: King of the Monsters!


Destroy All Monsters, but switch out the aliens with a slow-talking eco terrorist played by Vera Farmiga. The trailer may be unspooling in her head because the music definitely trades on a sense of wonder, more than a sense of terror (hey! the monsters finally drained the swamp!). We get a glimpse of each name creature, and maybe a little more. I mean, it's not a Toho kaiju so it's not possible, but doesn't that creature the kid bonds with around 1min10 look like a turtle, i.e. Gamera? Who ELSE bonds with kids as a matter of course? Pipe dream. It's probably the Mothra larva. Off chance it's Anguirus. What we're promised is a big apocalyptic movie with Toho's four greatest monsters (not a big fan of calling them Titans, or is Rodan gonna say "F*** Godzilla!" at some point?), and how can I not be up for that? Sally Hawkins is just the cherry on top.

So there you have it. What did you think of these trailers, or alternatively, any others that caught your eye coming out of SDCC?